Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

English

First Advisor

Robert Perrin

Second Advisor

Harriet E. Hudson

Third Advisor

Rosetta R. Haynes

Abstract

As one of the prominent and influential philosophers of her time, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was well known for her 1898 study, Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution. This study demonstrated the negative perceptions maintained toward women from within an androcentric culture. Gilman's treatise developed into a life long argument for the equal treatment and considered value of one-half of the human population: women. It is through the educational facet of her social philosophy illustrated in the novel, Her land, that Gilman demonstrates a culture composed of caring women who view the education of the child as the most important aspect of community and society. The women of Berland demonstrate the highest degree of concern for community members because they live within a caring and nurturing environment. This nurturing environment enables the women to progress in technological as well as. social and intellectual fields, and the reciprocity between society and the individual is apparent. Constant "growth," or progress, occurs through positive change, and Gilman argued that growth can occur only when women and men are allowed to discover potential capabilities through education, work, and experience from within a truly democratic society. Gilman's educational philosophy is as efficacious today as it was during the early twentieth century.

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